Kedesh

She held court under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided.

She sent for Barak, son of Abinoim, from Kedesh in Naphtali, and said to him, The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you.

Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun, and lead them up to Mount Tabor.

I will lead Sisera, the commander of Jebon's army, with his chariots and his troops, to the Kishon River, and give him into your hands.

But either with the idea that you still would require a kapara or there's a general kapara to be made, and they could still bring a hatas, It's still Mechudash, Rabbi Yoshua.

But I think it's, all I'm trying to say is, I think it's an inspiring Kedesh, Rabbi Yoshua.

Okay.

So then, of course, the question becomes, what does Yediyas HaKed really mean? How specific does his knowledge need to be? Ked Ariel, I'm Rabbi Yossi.

Rabbi Yossi, you don't have to say a lot of Kedesh HaKed.

Go ahead.

Oh, so here the Mishnah seems to be explicating.

Nevertheless, there will be no glory for you in the journey you are taking, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.

Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh.

And Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh.

He went up with ten thousand men under his command, and Deborah went up with him.

Now Heber the Kenite of the children of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses, had separated himself from the Kenites and pitched his tent near the terebinth tree at Zanaim, which is beside Kedesh.

And they reported to Sisera that Barak, the son of Abinoam, had gone up to Mount Tabor.

So Sisera gathered together all his chariots, nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people who were with him, from the Haraxeth Hagoyim to the river Kishon.

And the sons of Gershom, according to their families, out of the tribe of Issachar, and out of the tribe of Asher, and out of the tribe of Naphtali, and out of the tribe of Manasseh in Bashan, thirteen cities unto the sons of merari were given by lot according to their families out of the tribe of reuben and out of the tribe of gad and out of the tribe of zebulun twelve cities and the children of israel gave to the levites the cities with their suburbs and they gave by lot out of the tribe of the children of judah and out of the tribe of the children of simeon and out of the tribe of the children of benjamin these cities which are mentioned by name and some of the families of the sons of kohath had cities of their borders out of the tribe of ephraim and they gave unto them the cities of refuge shechem in the hill country of ephraim with its suburbs gezer also with its suburbs joch me'am with its suburbs and beth horin with its suburbs and aishalon with its suburbs and gath-rimmon with its suburbs and out of the half-tribe of manasseh aner with its suburbs and bilium with its suburbs for the rest of the family of the sons of kohath unto the sons of gershom were given out of the family of the half-tribe of manasseh golan and bashan with its suburbs and Ash-teroth with its suburbs.

And out of the tribe of Issachar, Kedesh with its suburbs, Debarath with its suburbs, and Ramoth with its suburbs, and Anum with its suburbs.

And out of the tribe of Asher, Mashal with its suburbs, and Abdon with its suburbs, and Hukok with its suburbs, and Rehob with its suburbs.

And out of the tribe of Naphtali, Kedesh and Galilee with its suburbs, and Haman with its suburbs, and Kerethim with its suburbs.

unto the rest of the levites the sons of merari were given out of the tribe of zebulun ramana with its suburbs tabor with its suburbs and beyond the jordan at jericho on the east side of the jordan were given them out of the tribe of reuben bezer in the wilderness with its suburbs and jazah with its suburbs and kedemoth with its suburbs and mef aath with its suburbs and out of the tribe of gad ramoth and gilead with its suburbs and mahanim with its suburbs and heshbon with its suburbs and jaser with its suburbs chapter six

Hey, it's Bobby Bones.

And speaking of those cities, the biblical narrative shows them as concrete locations.

Golan, Ramoth, Bozor in the east, and Kedesh, Shechem, Hebron in the west.

In ancient Israelite law, these were places you could flee to when you were wrongly accused or on instinct to protect yourself from retribution.

When you hear the psalmist talk about being a refuge, it evokes that same idea of an accessible sanctuary, even though here it's not a physical location, but God himself.

So how was one Yotzeh in the midst of twilight? It's not a Kesher Sholta Yom.

So the Avnei Nezah came up with a Kedesh that in the children's Avnei Nezah, he came up with a Kedesh that you have to plan to leave the Kesher for 24 hours.

To lead the Kesher, that's where I was.

And Hilchot Shabbos, that plays a role on the level of the Rabban.

The geographic setting is also significant.

The Psalm mentions Lebanon, Kedesh on the Orontes, and Sirion, another name for Mount Hermon.

These are all locations in the northern Levant, in what's today Lebanon and southern Syria.

This is not the traditional heartland of the ancient Israelite kingdoms further south.